brickclubfandomcom-20200213-history
1.7.5-Aphraseremains
Brick!Club 1.7.5 Spokes in the wheel Everything keeps going wrong to prevent Valjean from getting to Arras, so he keeps having to make his decision over and over. He can’t just rest on having decided on a course of action and keep going along with it; he has to keep putting active effort into getting to Arras and resist the temptation to give up every time. And it’s so tempting, because he desperately doesn’t want to do this thing. Even as he’s setting out, he doesn’t know why he’s doing this, “out of all his agonies of conscience no finality has emerged”. He’s basically keeping himself going with the idea that he hasn’t really made a decision yet, with all these excuses to convince himself that he’s not condemning himself to prison again, that he’s acting prudently for his own safety, that his conscience will allow him to let Champmathieu take his place once he gets there, because he won’t be able to go through with this otherwise. And who doesn’t understand that? And at this point, rather than being overwhelmed by being the master of his fate, he’s clinging to it as his only hope of safety. And then the wheel breaks. And he examines every possibility before deciding that he can’t go on – he really is trying to do the right thing here. But he is so relieved when he thinks that there’s no way to make it in time, that Providence is at work to keep him free. And it’s Madeleine who feels overwhelmingly relieved. That’s actually the first mention we’ve had of his name in this chapter – we obviously know who he is, but he’s only been identified by descriptors. It fits with pilferingapples’s theory about the Madeleine Mystery of earlier chapters, where it’s a reflection of how he conceives of his identity and his dissociation from being Valjean. He’s not thinking of himself as Valjean or Madeleine while he’s in this state of uncertainty, but when he thinks Providence has made his decision for him he allows himself to become Madeleine again. And then he is given a way to get to Arras after all, and he takes it, because he has to, but he’s so freaked out. I find it really interesting how, even as this is all very much about his decisions and perseverance against a situation that seems to be actively blocking him from doing what he needs to do, there’s also this idea of a hand (the Hand of God, I presume) drawing him forward and forcing him to do this thing. And then he’s so angry with himself for his earlier relief. Oh Valjean. But he can’t manage to be generous to the boy who found him a way to get there. “Why is the bread here so bitter?” Now there’s a question that’s open for interpretation. Should I read too much into it being bread? The fandom (mostly because of how the musical sticks in one’s head) tends to pay more attention to the bread thing than the Brick does so far, but still. Is he upset by the thought that the trial might be already over by the time he gets there or relieved by it? Could he even answer that question, do you think?